


All As It Should Be

by likethenight



Series: Hero Worship [5]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Character Study, Food, Gen, Growing Up, Growing Up Together, Isengard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:53:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25261885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likethenight/pseuds/likethenight
Summary: In the thick of the Battle of Isengard, Merry does some thinking about Pippin and how his cousin is growing up - and not just growing taller.
Relationships: Merry Brandybuck & Pippin Took
Series: Hero Worship [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802575
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17
Collections: Tolkien Gen Week 2020





	All As It Should Be

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a birthday fic for pippinswolf on LJ back in September 2004 and then never posted it anywhere else - and when I found it in my fic folders the other week I thought it was a WIP. Turns out it's finished! Who knew. 
> 
> Posting for Tolkien Gen Week day 7, bonus, because it's definitely that! A little late, but still.

Strange. In the middle of battle, as Pip chucks a rock up to me and I hurl it at a passing Orc, I find myself musing on how much my cousin has changed, these last months. I haven't had time to think about it up until now; I haven't really time to think now, in the thick of Isengard's last stand, dodging the missiles and the splashes of water. But thinking is just what I'm doing. Very strange.

Almost as strange as the thought that Pippin is growing up. And not just growing taller, either, which was worrying enough in itself until I overtook him again. He's changing into the Hobbit I always knew he could be, before my very eyes. The old Pip would never have thought of such a devious way of persuading Treebeard to our cause. He'd still be in the Forest, drinking the water just to see how far upwards he could grow. Or he'd be on his way home, still holding that innocent, childish hope in his heart that the Shire would still be green and welcoming.

It nearly broke my heart to take that hope away from him. I hated myself for saying it, for shattering that innocence that was such an integral part of him. I watched as the realisation sank in, and I think the last of my own innocence died too, then. Inside me, I'd been trying to tell myself that all would be well without the two of us getting involved, small as we are. But I knew, really, that it wouldn't; that we had a part to play just as Frodo and Aragorn and all the others have. And I think Pip knew too, deep in his heart, in the part of him that had already begun to think about greater things than where his next meal was coming from. But it took me and my harsh words to break the shell of childhood that cocooned him, and that hurt worse than anything I've ever felt in my life. He should not have had to lose that, not for years yet. Not ever, if I'd had my way.

But there are greater things at work here, and Pip's proved himself to be part of it after all. I'd given up on Treebeard, that bitter little speech to Pippin the last flare of my determination. I slumped in our new friend's branches and despaired. But Pip, sitting up there in the topmost branches as comfortably as if he'd been climbing the Party Tree again, he came up with the one thing that would sway Treebeard's ancient soul. Turn south, he said, towards Isengard, and gave some rigmarole about the closer we were to danger, the further we were from harm. Typical Pippin logic, I thought to myself, not understanding at all. But when we reached the edge of the forest and saw the devastation that swept before us, all the way down to Isengard, I saw what Pippin was doing, and it almost took my breath away.

Treebeard's howl of fury, the march of the Ents, the sight of the forest itself moving away to deal with the Orcs; it was huge, and all set in motion by my little cousin, the imp of mischief who had been my best friend since the day he was born. I felt so proud of him I nearly burst.

I find myself looking at him in a new light, when the battle is over and Treebeard gently sets us down in the water. For a moment I wonder if his sense of fun has died along with his childhood, but as he notices the apples floating past us, his eyes light up and before a moment has passed we're laughing and scrambling through the water, following the trail of fruit, more food floating past as we get closer to what must have been a storeroom. Food! Real, proper food! I echo Pip's shout of glee as we dive through the door and survey our prize; our happiness is completed by the sight of two barrels of finest Longbottom Leaf.

I smile contentedly as we settle down with our loot. Pip is still in there, despite the grown-upness, I am still taller than he is, and we're still capable of stuffing ourselves full of food and smoking ourselves silly. Everything is as it should be, even if only for a little while.


End file.
